Article
March 18, 2021
Eli Weiner, President and Founder of BoaVida Group has over 20 years’ experience working in Manufactured Housing Communities. He began selling mobile homes in 2000 while still a full time student, “a year later, he co-founded Woodcrest Homes, a manufactured-home dealership, followed by BoaVida Group and then other associated companies,” says Mark Anderson in Sacramento’s BoaVida buys two more California mobile home parks for $27 million for Sacramento Business Journal. The BoaVida Group currently owns and operates 136 mobile home and RV parks across the country and Onyx Capital handles most of their Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recourse financing. We caught up with Eli Weiner to talk about the MHC business and shine a light on what it’s like to partner with Onyx Capital.
Why do you choose to partner with Onyx Capital?
Eli Weiner: In this industry you can really get yourself in a lot of trouble if you don’t have bankers that you trust. What I found, being one of the most active purchasers in the business, is that Onyx has been very correct in their predictions on how things would turn out. As far as interest rates go, they performed well with providing interest rates that we were expected to get at the beginning of the process. We know this is a moving target because everything is based on a 10-year treasury, so they don’t have control over that, but they do have control over their negotiating ability when it comes to locking that rate and I found that most of the time they are beating what their quote is because they are able to go in there and negotiate a better deal. Having bankers that are fighting for you and understand your business is very important.
Onyx Capital and Peter Tripp definitely earned our trust. They are our first go to and we feel comfortable sharing deals with them, including off market deals that nobody knows about. They keep everything confidential. They definitely have a lot of integrity and we have closed a lot of deals together.
How has the MHC industry changed over the past 20 years and what are your predictions for the future?
Eli Weiner: It has definitely gotten more competitive, there is no doubt about that! It is still a very relationship [dependent] business in that people with the best relationships are going to get a chance to do the most business. There is a lot of new people in the market and the problem is it is such a niche market- It is its own business, so if you are trying to work with someone who doesn’t specialize in this asset class then you are not going to get satisfying results.
We are going to see what happens this year with tax changes and the new administration that may slow things down for a short time as far as investment goes into the space because of the tax benefits. At the same time a lot of these policies might make it more difficult to afford much more than our asset class which is unfortunate too.
Why should people invest in manufactured housing communities?
EW: The income is the most predictable income of all real estate asset classes, the need for affordable housing has never been greater and there is no good substitute for it. You have an asset class that there is demand for but there is no supply added to the market. As an investment, it is a very secure and predictable cash flow, more so than any other real estate asset I can think of.
In many ways it is a forgiving business because you have supply and demand so much on your side. We actually see operators out there that are getting bad publicity because they are not pouring money back into the communities as they should because long term it will be worth having these properties look their best.
What are your thoughts on community building?
EW: Community is all about relationships you have with your neighbors and the people that live in that community. We continuously try to build relationships and get the residents to communicate with each other because the more events we can do at the properties, the more community we can build and the safer the community will be. That can make a difference between the place people have to live in and the place they want to live in.
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The BoaVida group supports Fellowship of Christian Athletes that work with high school and college kids, helping them to know Christ and connecting them with positive mentors. Locally in Sacramento they are also involved with Compassion Planet that help foster kids get their first job. “BoaVida Group buys mobile home parks and fixes them up, trying to breathe that sense of community back into them” says Emily Hamann in Through mobile home property investments, BoaVida Group has seen dramatic growth in Sacramento Business Journal. The company is always looking to give back and last year they started a tradition helping those in BoaVida communities that are most in need by gifting them with Target and Walmart vouchers for food and other necessities. The BoaVida group expects to continue their successful relationship with Onyx, for the next 20-30 years “or as long as they want to keep doing all the hard work that I keep giving them!” adds Weiner with a smile.
